Colours and Water bodies

The Holi – Masi Magam quiz

• There are multiple theories for this. One theory that found acceptance is that it denotes ovary and sperm. Why there is a reference to these two has several possible answers. One is that thoughts of activities that relate to these two be left outside. One other is that this is symbolic of communion. Another theory is that it denoted the male and female forms, both of which are important.

• What?

• Why temple walls are painted red and white

• This is a painting by Martin Drolling. What he used for the brown pigment in the painting was an important component in the trade between Spain and Egypt. The use of this declined only in the 17th century because of non-availability.

• What is this brown pigment called?

• Mummy brown

• Obtained from bitumen found with mummies

• Interesting fact: The Persian word for bitumen is mumiya which gave mummies their name

• Many languages do not distinguish between the two colours. One of those languages was Japanese, which had the same word 青 (ao) for both. A new word for one of the colourscame about only during World War II and became popular because of its use by programmers.

• Which two colours?

• Why did the word midori grow in popularity in the 1950s and 60s?

• Blue and green

• Because of the advent of RGB

• This is a colour called Salmon. In the 15th

century, it was much easier to dye paper with this colour rather than bleach the papers white. First adopted by a company which wanted to distinguish itself from a similarly named company, this idea was quickly picked by most in that field. Explanation for what?

• The colour of financial newspapers

• Saginaw County’s (Michigan) Sheriff, William Federspiel decided to replace the prison uniform from what it looked like (left) to the earlier version (on the right) in 2014.

• This was because he felt that the one on the left was becoming too fashionable. Why was it?

• The TV series Orange is the New Black

• Another prison provides inmates with pink innerwear.

• Jerald D. Kralik, a neuroscientist claimed that acting submissively to red had evolutionary explanations. In the first part of his argument, he showed results of how rhesus monkeys did not prefer to take apples from people wearing red but took from those wearing blue or green.

• What did he analyse and use in his argument to show that humans acted submissively to red?

• Olympic boxing videos

• Those in red performed better than those wearing blue

• Also, when the two colours were swapped in the footage and shown to judges, they awarded more points to the person in red

• This was built by a widowed queen named Udayamati in memory of Bhimdev I about 1000 years ago but discovered only in 1980. The structure itself could have been seen as a subterranean temple to highlight the importance of water which is scarce in the area.

• Which structure, that was added to a certain hallowed list last year?

• Rani ki Vav in Gujarat, now a World Heritage Site

• This annoying new trend in movies has seen quite a few irritated people writing about it online.

• The explanation by the movie-makers is that these two colours are the most contrasting. One of the two colours was chosen because of its closeness to the human skin tone.

• This however does not explain its usage in movie posters (e.g. Jumper, GI Joe Rise of the Cobra, Night at the Museum, Bourne Identity).

• Which 2 colours?

Orange and blue/teal

• This colour is associated with adultery, largely because of the passage in the Bible which says that The Great Harlot was dressed in this.

• Ironically, this is the same colour worn by Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church.

• This is also the colour of the academic dress worn by those graduating in the UK.

• What colour?

contd

• Scarlet

• For brownie points, identify this flower

• This is colour #50 of 135 in Crayola’s list of standard crayon colours. Both the colour and this exercise take inspiration from the same thing.

• What is this colour called?

• http://www.nospoiler.com/y/yr-HHgxXTqg

• Inchworm

• This is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers designed by Bernini. The four beings represent four rivers of the four continents – Ganges for Asia, Danube representing Europe, Nile for Africa. What river that lends its name to a football team represents America?

• River Plata (Argentina)

• The football team is River Plate

• What is this U shaped metal pole that fits over the underside of the neck of a bullock?

• Oxbow

• Oxbow lakes get their name from this

• This is said to have been inspired by the tallit, a traditional Jewish prayer shawl. But in recent times, several leaders like Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud al-Zahar (Hamas leader) have claimed that they are a reference to two water bodies between which Zionists seek to have control. This, they allege depicts Eretz Yisra'el, the land promised to Jews by God in the Bible.

• What is this about? What are the two water bodies? contd

• The blue stripes in the Flag of Israel

• Euphrates and Nile

• Many traditions had colour coding for the four cardinal directions. What was the colour for North and South in many Turkish and Middle-Eastern traditions? This colour coding is also believed to play an important role in how two water bodies got their name.

• North = black

• South = red

• This is probably why the Black Sea and Red Sea are called what they are

• Icamiabas were warrior tribes who among other things grew their hair long and spoke a language which had a lot of shrieks. When a certain Orellana went looking for gold near something that was then named because of the Cinnamon trees that grew there, he met the Icamiabas and a fierce fight ensued.

• What did Charles I liken the Icamiabas to when Orellana narrated the story of their ambush?

• Amazons from Greek mythology

• And thus the Amazon river

• This is an adventure sport, popular in spots along the rapids of the Ganges and Kaveri.

contd

• Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand offers this activity. Its name is inspired by the sport in the previous slide. Name both.

Answer

• White water rafting

• Black water rafting

• Maho Beach is an important tourist attraction in the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.

• Something found near the beach (let’s call it X) is the cause for hundreds of tourists each month. Timetables that one would find at X can also be found in all restaurants in the beach. The beach has also seen the growing popularity of a certain variant of windsurfing.

• Why is this beach popular?

• Plane spotting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpdnLoram4Q)

• Redshift is a software inspired by the more popular f.lux that gradually changes the warmth of the screen display with day. The screen is blue during the day while it becomes red in the night.

• Why is this a good idea?

• It’s harder to sleep after seeing a blue screen because the brain thinks that it is day

• Connect the Qutang, Wu and Xiling

• The 3 Gorges of the Yangtze over which the 3 Gorges dam (the largest dam) is built

• Thirunelveli halwa, which has bid to get a GI status, has a taste that hasn’t been able to be replicated anywhere else.

• This is attributed to a secret ingredient that is used by the famed iruttu kadai and other makers of the halwa.

• What is the ‘secret ingredient’?

Answer

• Water from the Tamaraparani river